Stags & Lilies
by BriBriInAction
Summary: James's 7th year, and how he gradually matures to win Lily's affection, even if he has unknowingly a bit already.
1. Socks and Badges

_Okay, so here I am with yet another zany marauder story. This is James beginning from summer in his 7th year, and how he finally matures, hopefully. I do hope you guys enjoy it nearly as much as I do writing it. There will be romance (eventually, because my lovely title would make no sense if not), some craziness, and very random outbursts from Sirius, and if you like it owl me >.> I like ze owls (reviews), love ze owls._

**Dedication bit:** Inspired by my crazy fraternal twin Meg, may our craziness continue to thrive until the last breathe has left our damned bodies.

**DISCLAIMER: I, ofcourse, would not be so crazy as to claim credit for J.K's original characters. She created them, and I thank her so greatly for giving me a chance to hone my writing skills in a fun, eccentric way.**

**Chapter 1- Socks, and Badges**

James Potter had invited his best mate, Sirius Black, to stay with him over the summer. James actually welcomed it being an only child, and his parents worked most of the summer leaving him alone a great deal of the time. Sirius was in the opposite situation, where as his parents were nuts, and his brother a Slytherin, Gryffindor's mortal enemy so they weren't exactly what one would call 'peachy' with each other.. Sirius and James had woke up early that morning in hope of the prospect of playing quidditch as early as possible, now shoveling down food as fast as they humanly could. When James suddenly felt compelled to ask Sirius about his eye (in which he had been clutching all week) but was to macho to ask."What's wrong with your eye by the way?" he tried to ask casually.  
"I have a stye.."  
"What the hell is that?"  
"An ingrown eyelash..."  
James fell off his chair in horror.

Later that evening.. after many tasty cookies made the day before by James's lovely mother... James lay impatiently on his bed while Sirius, violently scattered underwear and socks all over his once tidy room, "Dammit James, are you sure you haven't seen him?" Whom was looking for his teddy bear (he claimed it soothed his eye)."Yes unless you count up my buttocks, and no you can't check there either" he said to to look of glee on Sirius's face for a moment."Fun-killer"  
"Snivilley lover"  
"That was cold Prongsy, so cold" as a look of disgust grew across his face, much to James's satisfaction.  
"A man has to do, what a man has to do"  
"Pft, then you didn't do anything did you?" James chucked the nearest pillow at Sirius whom began throwing random pairs of underwear, and socks back in retaliation, when they heard a knock on the window where a tawny owl was waiting. James dropped his socks, opened the window, and took the letters from the owl who floated gracefully off again. On closer examination of the letters he realised they were Hogwarts letters for him and Sirius, his felt considerably heavier.  
"They're our Hogwarts letters, here take yours" he said thrusting the letter at Sirius's head who fell over dramatically to aviod it.  
"It's just a bloody letter Padfoot!"  
"Papercuts!" Said Sirius defensively, James rolled his eyes.  
"Honestly if you weren't my best mate, I'd have to kill you." He said as he began peeling open his letter when something hard fell painfully onto his foot.  
"Ow, damnit what the hell is this?" he added while pulling up the thing.. and then he dropped it again.  
"What is it?" said Sirius scrambling up to his bed grabbing it, then his jaw dropped.  
"YOU'RE headboy? Has Dumbledore lost his socks?"  
"I know... this is the most terrible thing since.. Remus being made prefect!"  
"T'is okay buddy you gots me" he said, his black eyes twinkling.  
"How the hell is that supposed to be comforting?"  
"Ionno, it sounded all caring and such in my head..."

_A week or so later at the train station._

"Okay so you're head boy?" said Remus now looking at James with disbelief.  
"Yes goddammi-" but he stopped talking as the beautiful Lily Evans walked by her auburn hair flowing gently behind her and green plaid skirt going up a bit before her knees, he could hear Peter, and Sirius sniggering loudly behind him.  
"I-"  
"am whipped, dearry" finished Sirius, as even Remus broke out sniggering with them this time.  
"I am head boy.. and as is she, butter pumpkin" he said grinning, and pointing to the shiny badge pinned neatly to her white blouse.  
"Well everyone knew she'd be head girl, you're the real shocker Jamsey-poo" but suddenly, he noticed Sirius begin fussing with his hair. When he realised Lily's blonde friend, Alison Jones, walk over to Lily. Sirius nudged Remus,  
"Rem.. how's my hair?"  
"Good,"  
"Are you absolutely positive?"  
"Sirius I assure you, your hair looks amazingly splendid"  
"Talk about whipped," muttered James sticking his tongue out, Sirius punched him, and they all made their jolly good way onto the train argueing about 'whipped-ness'.  
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_Lily and him will come into play the next chapter, which will be less choppy and more detailed. Anyways, reveiw me if you like it._

_**Edit:** I made the reveiws enabled, overlooked that, and in answer to James being head boy, no you don't have to be prefect first (Remus was) in order to be a head boy or girl, J.K. made sure to mention James was head boy in his 7th year and in book 5, she said Remus was prefect._


	2. Love Is Painful and Athletic, Part I

_Okay so this is the 2nd chapter, enjoy! It's short but huggable . Again reveiw me if you like my story, it makes me want to post longer chapters and faster. James is such a silly guy x_

**DISCLAIMER: Again, this is J.K's charry's I'm using ;p**

_**Stags & Lillies**  
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**Love is Painful.. and Athletic, Part I**

James split off from his friends and found himself in the empty head compartment. He soon realised waiting for Lily to come was like an hour before midnight on Christmas Eve, he impatiently paced back and forth until atlast he finally heard her coming, threw himself onto the seat... missed, and fell onto the ground... painfully. He would've cried out in pain if.."James?" said Lily, a smile playing in her eyes as she looked down at him. "Yeah?" he said jumping up, and wiping off his shirt like nothing had happened, even if he was quite certain he'd managed to bruised his bum_ and _ego for life.  
"What exactly are you doing in the heads compartment?"  
"Well... weren't you informed?"  
"About?"  
"Me being head boy..."  
"YOU made head boy?" said Lily with an utter look of disbelief.  
"Well Lily as shocking as it may be, and yes, I register that it is indeed shocking to one such as yourself, I did actually make head boy this year." said James with a tinge of annoyance even if he already regretted it and to his surprise,  
"I'm sorry, it's just well, I assumed with your past history and all.. and I thought Remus was due for the spot."  
"Of course, everyone knows I'm the screw up, can we move on?"  
"Yeah actually, I have some ideas for the balls, and prefect training, I think it'd be nice if we could go over them together." He smiled and said, "Actually I have some too,"  
James and Lily talked for the next three hours, shockingly this talk lacked crying, yelling, and the throwing of various solid objects. Soon him and her had moved onto how summer was, and.. he sneakily asked if she dated anyone over it, and her reply was no which made him considerably happier. When the witch pushing a trolley came by they knew it was time to go help the prefects to warn everyone to get into robes, James took this time to see his fellow marauders.  
"Jamsey Wamsey, how goes it with firehead?"  
"Pretty well actually, and don't call her that fluffy snickles."  
"Yeah, don't call her that" said Peter, earning him a sideways glance from Remus.  
"Rawr."  
James smiled, closed the door in Sirius's face, and made his way back over to the compartment when he saw Lily, who was reprimanding a fifth year (whom was giving her looks from hell), "We DON'T stick firecrackers up other students noses! Detention Mr. Thompson." He withheld from snorting, in mortal fear of Lily's provoked rage.  
"Two nights detention" he added to her.  
"What?" said the outraged Mr. Thompson.  
"Three if you piss me off good enough." said James, "Now get to your compartment before **I** shove a firecracker up your nose then hex it to beat you to death." and the boy left him and Lily, radiating with rage.  
"You have a ... unique way of er.. handling students James."  
"It's a gift." He said shrugging.  
"I like it." She said and started laughing, sending his stomache into summersaults.

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_Anyways, I love ze reveiws! Reveiw moi lol, anyways the chapters **will** get longer as I find more 'convienant' occurrences for our dearest James and Lily to fall inlove. Thanks for the reveiws Sprite, Meg, and Achi._

**DISCLAIMER: Again, this is J.K's charry's I'm using ;p**


	3. Love Is Painful and Athletic, Part II

_Okay so this is Part II, . the plot will thicken more as the story goes on, but for now here's some James lufferliness! Thanks for the reveiws everyone! _

**DISCLAIMER: Pretty much all of these characters belong to the amazing J.K Rowling 3**

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** Love is painful... & Athletic, Part II**

After the feast that night they were told their set of duties as heads by Dumbledore, which was more or less to inform prefects of things, or keep students inline and make events at the school more interesting for the other students. After Lily had cleared the office saying she was turning in for the night, James took the time to turn around and ask Dumbledore why he was made headboy and, blue eyes twinkling he replied, "I saw a loyality in you last year, even if it was saving your enemy, and going against your best friend.. and besides I thought it was high time you made up with someone."  
James looked at Dumbledore with an expression of curiousity on his face before registering it.  
"I-"  
"Must be getting off to bed, I daresay all those NEWT classes you have tomorrow will be tiring" and with that Dumbledore shut the door in his face. James wondered back to the common room dumbfounded, how would Dumbledore know about him and Lily? He climbed through the portrait and found all of his familiar friends making a huge racket over a game of wizards chess, apparently Remus was winning and Sirius didn't like that to much.  
"You're killing my soul Remus, it hurts right here" said Sirius putting his hand to his chest, as Remus's queen knocked his knight off the board.  
"All is fair in love and war and 'joo'-" said Remus having his queen behead his king, "just got schooled, checkmate biotch"  
"Oh Sirius better luck next time" said Peter, as Remus cleared up the table with his wand.  
"Yeah.. if Remus _lives_ 'till next time" grumbled Sirius, who just now noticed James.  
"What took you so long, we saw fireh- I mean, Lily come through here 10 minutes ago"  
"I had to ask Dumbledore something."  
"Hrm.. a big wonder what that could be." said Remus.  
"Jesus, does everyone have to know what the hell I was doing because I was gone for 10 minutes?"  
"Always mate, that's why we love you..." Sirius said, "sexually."  
James, Remus, and Peter looked at Sirius, all turning away and coughing.  
"So um yeah," said Peter.  
"Bed, yeah great idea Peter," said Remus.  
"Lovely," said James and they all left Sirius gawking at them for the boys dorms, where James lay on his bed starting to think about Lily when he was rudely interrupted by Sirius yelling down the stairs.  
"See yah tomorrow Alison!"  
"Wha-pish" said James.  
"Shove it."  
The next day in history of magic, James sat boredly with his chin resting in his hand, listening to Sirius snore loudly beside him (Remus and Peter watching Binns wearily), and watched Lily attentively take notes a row infront of him, thinking how the hell did she do it. He knew Lily was smart, but he knew she was also one of the most caring, stubborn people in Hogwarts.. not to mention pretty, and what killed him about her is that she'd never taken any interest in him because she thought the only reason he liked her was superficial. She turned around, brushing a lock of auburn hair from her face, and looked at him for a moment causing him to drop his hand, hitting his chin on the desk. Lily turned away smiling and started whispering to Alison, while Remus and Peter collapsed underneath their desks silently laughing and making 'wha-pish' sounds. James was not sure if his face could go any redder by the end of the hour, especially when Sirius woke up.

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_Reveiws make meh happy lol, but I hope you guys still like this story!_ _I'm trying to make it a little different than most romance FF's by starting off normal, and not all 'James saw Lily and stood there in awe of her and wanted to move the world for her' but it will get there ;_


	4. Shocks

_Okay, here's a ... sorta rewinded chapter forget the last two ;p this ones better in my opinion.. but I'll find a sort of way to work all the old chapters work into it. Reveiw me please!_

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own most of the characters in this story J.K. Rowling does, I just write it.**_  
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_**"Shocks"**

James that day endured taunts from his fellow marauders like mad, all dancing around him making whip sounds, until James was finally fed up with it and shoved Sirius and Peter into the girls bathroom, Sirius reappearing at lunch with his hair looking extremely ruffled and his face plastered in vibrant purple and green make-up. Sirius sat down to the right of James (Remus on the left), looking permanantly windblown, eyes wide open and staring straight ahead

"Where was I?" he whispered mortified as James bit back a laughing fit. (Peter disappeared)  
"The girl's bathroom" said Remus, chewing on a roll, looking paler than ever.  
"They _have_ bathrooms?"  
"Of course they have bloody bathroom's, where'd you think they went to released themselves, the lake?" said Remus again moodily.  
"I just.."  
"How the hell are you top of the year anyways?"  
"Shove it you lot." said James now patting them both on the back.

The next week after classes James (having broke away from the other marauders) absentmindedly made his way to the common room lost in thought about how he was going to fix the situation he often found himself facing with Lily, she was never going to take him seriously if he couldn't act properly around her. So, he decided maybe it'd be best to give up on her for a little while and get back to a normal Hogwarts life where he focused on quidditch and full moons. Stirring out of thought James barely registered the person he was walking into,"Watch it Potter" said the back of greasy haired foe threatingly."I should've known, you'd be up to no goo-"  
"For you're information, I'm waiting for a group of 'friends' so study with later" there was a tone he didn't like about that, not that he liked any of Snape's tones.  
"Hah, would they be imaginary ones by any chance, Snivellus?"  
"Why don't you see for yourself Potter?"  
James heard a cold shrill laugh behind him as his cousins Bellatrix Black, Narcissa Black, Lucious Malfoy, and Rodolphus Lestrange walked around him all sneering and looking very smug with themselves.  
"Oh Potter you have no idea how long I've waited for a chance like this"  
"That's pretty pathetic, but I wouldn't put it past dolts like you lot." he said eyeing them all, expecting to get jinxed into oblivion any moment.  
"You'll learn to hold your tongue around non-blood traitors" Said Lucious raising his wand along with all of the others.  
"You're ego amazes me James" said a vioce.. but this time it was Lily who must've come down the hall while he focused on them, all turning around in mild surprise.  
"Lily stay out of thi-"  
"Oh no, I was sent here to escort you to Professor _Dumbledore_"  
The group immediatley cleared so Lily could walk through and grasp James's arm (which started tingling) and led him until they turned a corner.  
"They didn't do anything to you yet?" said Lily worried brushing her hand on his cheek as though testing to see if he still was normal on the inside too, he began tingling again and moved her hand down.  
"No, how'd you know?"  
"I was er.. going to the library and um.. Peter warned me to tell you something bad was going to happen there, so I rushed as fast as I could and thought of a good lie." Great the girl he was going to attempt to let go of just saved his bum, and now inexplcibily, he somehow loved her even more.  
"I now owe you several weeks you've saved me from in the hospital wing Lily, how can I repay you for such quick thinking?"  
"By taking me to Hogsmeade in a few weeks."  
"I- wait.. wha?"


End file.
